A new drug holds hope in the fight against wombat mange.

A new drug being trialled to treat Tasmania’s mangy wombats may soon allow a single dose to be administered to not only kill the disease but protect against reinfection.

John Harris inspects a blind mange infected wombat at Kelso. Picture Chris Kidd

A NEW drug being trialled to treat Tasmania’s mangy wombats may soon allow a single dose to be administered to not only kill the disease but protect against reinfection.

A three-month trial of the effectiveness of the new drug is underway at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary and early signs are positive.

“We are ultimately gunning for a single dose to kill mange in wombats in the wild and also protect them from future infection,” University of Tasmania wildlife ecologist Scott Carver said.

A wombat suffering from mange. Pic: Western Sydney University

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Sarcoptic mange is caused by skin-burrowing parasites which causes the wombat to scratch until infected, go blind and die a slow, painful death.

The plight of Tasmania’s wombat population first hit the headlines in 2016 when the local population at Narawntapu National Park, in the State’s north, was wiped out by mange.

The species’ suffering spurred an army of volunteers to mount a campaign to treat wombats in the wild with a drench called cydectin.

Spectators holding signs at the rally on the parliament lawns to draw attention to the problem of mange on the wombat population. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

Enclosures were also built to isolate healed animals from the outside population.

Public pressure saw the Tasmanian Government put up $100,000 to kick off a recovery program which included money for trials of both new and existing mange treatments.

University of Tasmania wildlife ecologist Scott Carver said the trial, being conducted at Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, had been running for three weeks.

The new drug has been administered to a couple of healthy wombats to ensure it did not have any major side effects and so far the signs are good.

The wombats’ blood is also being monitored to see how long the drug stays in the wombats’ system and potentially prevent reinfection.

An efficacy trial will be carried out before infected wombats in captivity are treated.

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“I am confident we will gain the evidence needed to then be able to go out and treat wild wombats,” Dr Carver said.

“Ideally we would use similar application to the burrow flaps already being used to administer cydectin to treat individual wombats but there could be other options,” Dr Carver said.

“We are never going to be able to eradicate mange but we hope to be able to control it in local populations, kill the mites in burrows and ease the animals’ suffering.

“We need to get the science right before we use it widely but we are gunning for a single dose to kill mange and protect wombats from future infection.”

Dr Carver said while existing treatments such as cydectin, lasted about a week, the new drug — the name of which is being kept confidential until the testing is complete — could make wombats resistant to mange for up to three months.